Fri, August 26, 2011 7:00 pm at Alwan for the Arts

Juliano by Emtiaz Diab (2011, 26 min, Arabic, English and Hebrew with English ST)

Join us at Alwan for the Arts for an evening screening of Emtiaz Diab's latest film, Juliano. Diab will be present after the screening to answer questions about the film.

About the Film:

Juliano documents the life of Juliano Mer-Khamis. Juliano, the son of Palestinian political leader, Saliba Khamis, and Jewish activist, Arna Mer, was killed for his dedication to the causes of humanity, justice, and youth empowerment. Through The Freedom Theatre, Juliano provided children of the Jenin refugee camp a safe space in which to freely express themselves and explore their creativity and emotions through culture and art. It was in front of The Freedom Theatre that Juliano was shot to death on April 4th, 2011.

Juliano Mer-Khamis:

Born in Nazareth in 1958, Juliano was a captivating actor and director in film and theatre. He was the son of Saliba Khamis, a Palestinian political leader, and Arna Mer, a Jewish activist. After the beginning of the first Intifada, Arna Mer founded The Stone Theatre in the Jenin Refugee Camp. The theatre was part of Arna's larger cultural project, Care and Learning, whose aim was to provide the children of Jenin—faced with a crushing and seemingly inescapable military occupation—a creative outlet for their chronic trauma. Arna died in 1995, and the Israeli army bulldozed her Stone Theatre in April 2002.

In 2003, Juliano, who was one of the directors of The Stone Theatre, co-directed an internationally acclaimed documentary about his mother’s legacy in Jenin, entitled Arna’s Children. The film includes footage of the children at the theatre filmed by Juliano during rehearsal periods from 1989 to 1996 and also shows what happened to them after 2002. Juliano re-established the theatre in Jenin in 2006, naming it The Freedom Theatre. There he produced and directed numerous plays, always with the goal of providing the refugee camp’s children and young adults a safe space in which they can be free to express themselves, to explore their creativity and emotions through culture and art. The theatre provides them with opportunities to develop the skills, self-knowledge and confidence that can empower them to challenge present realities and to speak out in their own society and beyond.

Juliano was greatly loved and respected in the refugee camp, where he was treated like family. But it was there, on April 4th, 2011, that Juliano was shot to death in front of The Freedom Theatre.

Emtiaz Diab:

Emtiaz Diab is a Palestinian journalist, writer and film-maker, whose professional career spans 25 years of assignments between Palestine, Israel and Europe. Trained as a photographer in Belgium, Diab's professional skill-set expanded over the years to include photo-, written- and radio-journalism, oral history documentation and publishing, as well as film-making and television production.

Some of her professional and creative achievements include:

Filming the first intifada in Gaza in 1988 and writing the stories of its young heroes

Bringing pre-1948 Arab Jaffa back to life in a deluxe 200 page illustrated history, published in 1992

Published in the Palestinian literary journal Al Karmel, accounts from the field of the first and second intifadas, the scars of Jenin in 2002 and the camps of refugee exile in Lebanon in 2004

Produced the first film of an international recital by the celebrated Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish accompanied by the oriental lutes of the Jubran Brothers, in Geneva, 2004

As a correspondent for Arab media based in Geneva for the past decade, she has interviewed countless Arab and international leaders, politicians, artists, experts and intellectuals

Our Sponsors

3rdi NY Film Programming is made possible in part by the Fund for Creative Communities, supported by NYSCA and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Alwan for the Arts hosts our monthly screenings series. We are thankful to the SINGH Foundation for acting as our fiscal sponsor.